SynchroniCity Framework in a Nutshell

SynchroniCity framework provides a set of technical assets to the stakeholder (e.g. open call participant, Cities) that want to build application on top of it or simply use their functionalities including the eventual deployment of Internet of Things infrastructure:

SynchroniCity API

SynchroniCity API are the reference implementation of the “Interoperability Points”, the main interfaces to interact with the SynchroniCity technical framework. The implementation of the SynchroniCity API is a basic requirement for the Reference Zones (Cities) that want to be compliant with SynchroniCity.

SynchroniCity API are based on RESTful approach and widely used standards. There are four sets of API:

Context Management API the way to communicate with the Context Management module in order to manage the context entities. The API are based on NGSIv2

Data Storage API provide access to historical data and Open Data. The definition of this API is inspired to the NGSI-LD Temporal Query language

The SynchroniCity IoT data marketplace Open API allows both the management and monetization of digital assets during the whole service life cycle. It is an extension of the Fiware/TMForum Business API Ecosystem

SynchroniCity Security API provides authentication and authorisation functionalities to access to the SynchroniCity services. The API is based on OAuth2 protocol

The compliance with SynchroniCity API is a mandatory requirement for both the applications that want to consume data and the new Cities that want to participate to SynchroniCity providing their data. The same applies when wishing to deploy new infrastructure in the Reference Zones. The compliance with SynchroniCity API is a key factor to enable the interoperability and replicability of the applications among different Reference Zones

Reference Zones datasets

The different Cities involved in SynchroniCity provide, through the framework, their (IoT) datasets (real-time or historical) related to different domains. See current available datasets here. The datasets are compliant to common NGSI/JSON data models based on existing standard and initiatives.

The adoption and usage of SynchroniCity data models among different RZs is another replicability enabler so has to be considered mandatory requirement for both data consumer (i.e. applications) and data provider (cities)

RZs can also provide additional open datasets through the SynchroniCity Open Data Federation Platform: this data is usually in heterogeneous formats and data models. External developers can reuse this data converting it in SynchroniCity data models. They can also choose to use the open datasets as is, but in this case they should be taken in consideration only as additional data to enrich and customise a SynchroniCity compliant application that has to be mainly based on SynchroniCity common data models.

Reference implementation components

SynchroniCity project offers a set of ready to use open software components that implement the SynchroniCity architecture. Using these components, a new City can easily deploy the SynchroniCity framework (or part of it) with the basic functionalities and API. The components are provided as Docker containers ready to be deployed in different environments. The adoption of reference implementation components is not mandatory, the RZ can rely on other (existing/local) software and only implementing the SynchroniCity API using specific adaptors/connectors.

SynchroniCity sandbox

A cloud deployment of SynchroniCity framework is provided by the project. This environment is a sandbox that can be used by external stakeholder (e.g. open call applicant) to test the SynchroniCity API and access to some sample city datasets.